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by Susan Smith - Managing EditorEach AEC Weekly Review delivers to its readers news concerning the latest developments in the AEC industry, AEC product and company news, featured downloads, customer wins, and coming events, along with a selection of other articles that we feel you might find interesting. Brought to you by AECCafe.com. If we miss a story or subject that you feel deserves to be included, or you just want to suggest a future topic, please contact us! Questions? Feedback? Click here. Thank you!

Alliances/Agreements/Acquisitions

Trimble Navigation Limited announced a public tender offer, to be made by its subsidiary Trimble Finland Oy, for all issued and outstanding shares in Tekla Corporation ("Tekla") for EUR 15.00 per share in cash representing an aggregate equity purchase price of approximately EUR 337 million (or approximately $489 million), and an enterprise value of EUR 311 million (or approximately $451 million). The consideration represents a premium of 52 percent to the closing price of Tekla shares on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd on May 6, 2011, the last trading day before this announcement. The Board of Directors of Tekla may, pursuant to the authorization granted by the annual general meeting

held on April 6, 2011, resolve to distribute additional dividends or other funds to its shareholders in the maximum amount of EUR 18 million, or up to EUR 0.80 per share, before the completion of the tender offer. If this occurs prior to the completion of the tender offer, it would result in an equal reduction in the above stated per share offer price of up to EUR 0.80 per share.

Rand Worldwide announces that its IMAGINiT Technologies division is expanding operations into additional Australian regions including Western Australia and New South Wales. These newly expanded IMAGINiT territories will focus on offering Autodesk products as well as IMAGINiT professional services in support of those products.

Announcements

The Performance Monitor for AutoCAD has retired from

Autodesk Labs. The technology preview stopped working on May 1. We learned a great deal from this technology preview. You provided great feedback about gadgets as a delivery technology to our customers - particularly those on Windows XP systems who could not leverage the gadget technology. You also confirmed our suspicions that AutoCAD performs quite well on 64-bit systems - with virtual memory used much less frequently than on 32-bit systems. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the gadget.

GRAPHISOFT will introduce ArchiCAD 15, the latest version of its flagship BIM software package to the North American architectural community, at the American Institute of Architects'

Bricsys NV, the developer of Bricscad, started the final beta cycle of its implementation of the Microsoft .NET Framework API (applications programming interface). This means that application developers can begin testing their .NET-based applications on Bricscad.

Bricscad is the powerful alternative CAD platform that enables .dwg-based applications to serve the growing markets of GIS, AEC, mechanical CAD, and civil engineering. This beta release of Bricscad pioneers support for managed client applications.

Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. and

MAXON Computer GmbH have teamed up to present the Inspired Visions Global Rendering and Animation Competition.

The competition is open to all professional and student designers around the world, and entries will be accepted in three categories: rendering with CINEMA 4D, animation with CINEMA 4D and rendering with Renderworks 2011. The CINEMA 4D entries must be built on a Vectorworks® model. All renderings and animations will be posted on the competition website, and a prize will also be awarded to the “Fan Favorite,” as determined by votes from the public.

Autodesk, Inc. introduced a new version of the company’s popular Autodesk SketchBook Pro for iPad app, designed to take full advantage of the new features and processing power of iPad 2.

Filter Foundry has announced that

Autodesk, Inc. is now showcasing Autodesk Mudbox and Autodesk SketchBook Pro software on FilterFoundry.com, an emerging social marketplace for creative professionals. Through Filter Foundry's innovative "sponsor engagement" model, Autodesk has created a "Pad" for each product, where visitors to the website can preview and learn about the products in an educational and collaborative environment. Filter Foundry members and subscribers can also attend "

Eagle Point Software Corporation announced the release of the 2012 versions of Siteworks for Revit and LANDCADD for Revit. Updates to these solutions take advantage of new functionality in Autodesk Revit 2012 software supporting a more complete building information modeling (BIM) workflow.

Informative Graphics Corporation (

IGC) officially releases Redact-It 2.0, the newest version of its electronic redaction software. Professionals in legal and healthcare markets, law enforcement, government offices, financial institutions and more trust Redact-It to remove sensitive information from documents before releasing them to broader audiences.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "

EMC Certified partner, announced the availability of the latest release of Brava! web-based viewing and collaboration tool for EMC Documentum TaskSpace 6.7. The release debuts this week at

EMC World at the Venetian Conference Center in Las Vegas, Booth 1304.

Informative Graphics Corporation (

IGC) announced the availability of Brava! 7, the latest release of its web-based viewing and collaboration tool, for EMC Documentum Webtop 6.7. The release debuts this week at

EMC World at the Venetian Conference Center in Las Vegas (IGC Booth 1304).

SmartDraw Software announced key enhancements to SmartDraw VP, the world's first visual processor, that improve the user experience and increase ease of use while adding key functionality. SmartDraw VP empowers the 95% of PC users who create only written documents to reap the benefits of communicating visually, and the enhancements announced help users get the results they want faster than ever.

Limitless Computing Inc., the company that provides faster rendering with cloud computing for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, announced that it will debut its new CloudRender for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 and Limitless Rendering™ for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2009-2012 in booth 3509 at the AIA (American Institute of Architects) National Convention and Design Exposition. An exclusive preview of Limitless Computing's upcoming SightSpace 3D for Google SketchUp iPad 2 app will also be on display.